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Thursday, July 14, 2011

This Can’t Be Life By Shakara Cannon Blog Tour

Shakara developed her love for writing during her childhood years writing stories to read to her family at bed time. As she honed her skills, Shakara steadily gained notoriety in high school. She further developed her passion for writing at California State University, majoring in English. Later, writing fiction grew from hobby to therapy.

Her talent for creating colorful, sexy, and humorous characters, coupled with relative, relatable, and sometimes even controversial topics brings her novels to life. Each page has you thirsting to know what happens next!

Excerpt

“This can’t be life…at least not a life worth living, I thought, as I moved my aching limbs. I’d been in bed for days in immeasurable pain from a broken heart. I was literally past my breaking point and done with this life. How do you keep living when your best friend is brutally murdered and the love of your life may be responsible? Lying in the dark with nowhere to hide from my thoughts and emotions, I felt alone, betrayed, deceived, hoodwinked, bamboozled, and lead astray! I needed to release the pain by any means necessary.”

Get to know Shakara:

What do you love most about writing?

What I love most about writing is creating characters and developing them into people we can all relate to on some level. Writing fiction is like forming one huge make believe story in your head. Nothing is off limits or taboo. You can take a story wherever your mind and creativity will allow you to take it. I become so engrossed in my characters and the lives that I create for them, that I cry when they cry, I feel happiness when they do. There is a euphoric feeling, that I’ve never experienced before, that I get when I am writing. It truly is an amazing gift.

What inspired you to write This Can’t be Life?

I was inspired to write This Can’t be Life after I learned that I’d repressed memories from my childhood. That is the only part of this story that is directly related to me. As an adult I began having a recurring nightmare that made me aware that I’d been molested as a child. It’s really amazing how our minds work and how it will protect us from events that are too difficult to deal with.

Why did you decide to self-publish?

I decided to self-publish after having a hard time finding an agent after writing query letter after query letter, which was harder than writing the actual novel! In the back of my head I always knew that I’d self-publish. The politics involved in being with a major publishing house and the control you lose, is a bit alarming to me. Also, what people don’t realize is that even when you are published by a big publishing house you still have to do as much work as if you were self-published, yet you make less. You have to market and promote tirelessly whether you are with one of the big boys or not! Yes it takes some up-front money to do it on your own, but the control you have is priceless. Distribution on a large scale is possible when you self-publish you just have to do the research. My book won’t sit for a year or until they are ready to release it. It won’t go out of print unless I decide to take it out of print. I have the final say on the overall look and content of my book, and what is best of all, I’ve created a business for myself that will live on if I do things right.’

What can we expect from you over the course of the next few years?

Great question! You can expect a lot, I promise to live up to it! I’m currently working on 2 novels, one being the sequel to This Can’t be Life and the other being an experimental General Fiction novel that will cross all racial barriers. Both of those will be out within the next few years. I’m also working on a self-help book titled How Your Thoughts Can Ruin Your Life with hopes of teaching our youth the positive thinking concept. I truly believe that anything we want to accomplish is possible if we first monitor and control how we think. A lot of people don’t realize how detrimental negativity is especially in regard to our inner dialogue.

“This can’t be life…at least not a life worth living, I thought, as I moved my aching limbs. I’d been in bed for days in immeasurable pain from a broken heart. I was literally past my breaking point and done with this life. How do you keep living when your best friend is brutally murdered and the love of your life may be responsible? Lying in the dark with nowhere to hide from my thoughts and emotions, I felt alone, betrayed, deceived, hoodwinked, bamboozled, and lead astray! I needed to release the pain by any means necessary.”

When the repressed traumas of Simone Johnson’s childhood resurface through a recurring dream, secrets are unveiled that explain the negligence of her mother and her deep distrust of men. The support of her best friends, Stacey and Talise, gives her strength, but when tragedy strikes, leading Simone into a chasm of darkness, who will be there to help her find her way out?

Simone, Stacey, and Talise are your typical best friends navigating life. They brush shoulders with entertainment’s elite and experience great successes.

Simone is living an extravagant lifestyle, which some may say has come to her easily. She doesn’t trust men and is willing to remain guarded to protect herself. Even though star NBA player, Deon Bradford – a good guy, looking for a woman to love him for him – has her in his sights, and is making every effort to bring down her guard, Simone remains distrustful. She feels that she can do without a man’s love, until an unsuspecting man comes into her life and shows her what true love is really like, but is he who he portrays himself to be or will Deon win her heart?

Talise is the romantic, who dreams of a marriage just like her parents. When she meets a man that she knows is her soul-mate, but later finds out that they stand on opposite sides of religion, will this be a deal breaker?

Stacey is the brother, the shoulder, and the comic relief, but when Stacey falls in love, he falls hard. Will his need to give into his heart cost him the ultimate price?

Once the secrets start tumbling out of the closets and no door is able to contain them, who do you turn to when your reality feels like a dream and you are sure that this can’t be life?